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Saturday, 27 March 2010

Park life

Can you tell what it is yet? A smart duck indeed, but a male Tufted x female Pochard hybrid rather than a Lesser Scaup.

It was birding on the run today - first, a successful second attempt in the morning at seeing Willow Warbler in Alexandra Park, with this smart hybrid Aythya stumbled into en route on the boating pond, and Little Grebe, two Blackcaps, two Common Chiffchaffs, Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers and a single Redwing thrown in for good measure. Then it was off to Trent Park in the afternoon for my daughter's riding lesson - no hoped-for Bullfinch or Little Owl nearby, just Sparrowhawk and Green Woodpecker to show for my efforts.

Meanwhile, the big news elsewhere in London was the second Alpine Swift in a week, this time over Crossness - just to the west of my patch at Rainham, where a male Ring Ouzel was also found. You can't be everywhere, of course, but that doesn't make it any easier when you hear news like that - I can feel an early start in the morning coming on.

PS The clocks go forward tonight, so let's not make that too early a start ...

My first Willow Warbler of the year, gripped back before the turn of the month.